Those who know me personally may have already heard the news, or perhaps you've already suspected it based on social media posts mentioning increased naps and , but there is something super exciting brewing over here at Buck & Libby headquarters… We're expecting our first baby this September! HOLY MOLY! We are so thrilled to share our news and can't wait to see how this new addition will change and enrich our lives!
As friends and family started to hear the news, we got lots of questions so I thought it would be fun to go through some of these questions and answer them here as well:
When did you find out you were expecting? How did you tell your husband?
I took a home pregnancy test on Christmas Day 2014 which came back positive. My husband was working that day and most places were closed for the holiday, so I freaked out with excitement solo at home then rushed out to Walgreens (the only place open) to get another test for confirmation and a little ornament gift that I could use to tell my husband. The second test, a digital one, also came back positive! It clearly said "PREGNANT", which is pretty hard to deny. I used a sharpie to write a little note to my husband on the ornament and I wrapped that, along with the positive tests, and put the package under the Christmas tree.
We didn't open presents between the two of us until the next morning and the waiting was KILLING ME, but I played it cool until it was present time. We opened all of our gifts to each other, leaving the big surprise until last. There were some shrieks of excitement, some hugs, and some happy tears. It was perfect.
Me, freaking out alone after the positive pregnancy test
The ornament I wrapped for my husband. It said "HO HO HO My Gosh…" then on the back it said "I'M PREGNANT!" with a little note and the date.
How did you tell the rest of your friends and family?
We used different ways to reveal the news to the rest of our friends and family. We went out the day after Christmas and bought frames for our parents. It was a frame typically used to hold a sonogram picture and it said "Coming Soon…" on it, but since we didn't have a sonogram picture yet we just framed a picture of the positive pregnancy test. No one aside from my husband and I knew we were even thinking about kids, which was intentional (we love a good surprise!). So our parents FREAKED. OUT. when they opened their gifts.
Framed positive test given to our parents
Mugs painted with Sharpie paint markers for my sister and her husband
My older sister lives out of town in Arkansas, and while I really wanted to make a trip down to tell her in person, it just wasn't going to work out. So, I wrapped some flavored coffee with a note that said, "Something Sweet is Brewing…", then I separately wrapped two mugs that said, "Aunt Jennifer" and "Uncle Jarrod". I shipped their gift down posing as a belated Christmas present, and we got to FaceTime with them as they opened it. So fun!
For most of our other local friends and family, announcing our news lined up perfectly with the fact that we just bought a new house. We invited them over to get a little tour of our new place, saving one room for last. When we walked in, we had it modestly decorated in baby stuff, showing that it would be the future nursery.
For some of my out of town friends, I sent a "life update" email around Valentine's Day along with this picture that I bought as a downloadable from Orange Elephant Designs on Etsy. You can find it here.
I also used this custom wine bottle label from Ten Twelve Designs (found here) to announce the big news at a girl's night. Gotta love Etsy and being able to find fun, unique ways to share the news!
Downloadable Baby Announcement by Orange Elephant Designs
Custom Wine Bottle Label by Ten Twelve Designs
Lastly, we used the doodle above to text to some of our friends and to announce on Facebook. I already had the family portrait done because we used it as our Christmas card last year, so I just had to make some edits, change our outfits, add a few words and a baby bump, and I recycled it to use as a baby announcement! Easy peasy!
How far along are you? When is your due date?
I am around 20 weeks right now, about halfway through! Official due date is September 3rd.
Do you know if you're having a big or girl? Are you planning to find out? Will you tell everyone?
We don't know the sex of the baby yet, but we plan to find out next week (yay!) As of now we do plan to announce it to everyone, just not sure when or how we want to do that.
Do you have any names picked out?
We have a list of boy and girl names we like, but we're keeping those under wraps at the moment.
How has pregnancy effected your business? How do you anticipate having a baby will change Buck & Libby in the future?
While you can never really predict how a big life change like having a baby will change things, I feel so very grateful to be able to do what I do for a living and to have that freedom and flexibility to experiment with my schedule and workload to find what works best for me and my family.
Pregnancy has been pretty smooth so far with no major complications (*knock on wood*), but working form home has been really great for days when I'm just so zapped of energy that a nap every 4 hours really is necessary. It's nice to have the freedom to snooze in the middle of the day, and work until 11pm instead if I feel like I need to.
As for post-baby transitions, I am working now to shift my business model a bit to accommodate the new role of motherhood that will soon take first seat. I am taking on far fewer custom projects and have, at least for the time-being, phased out custom portraits completely. While these are always fun to do, they are incredibly time-consuming and require all of my focus to meet specific deadlines. I want to have the freedom to devote all of my energy and attention to our new baby and not feel like i have a looming deadline nagging in the back of my mind.
I am instead focusing on creating new products and growing our wholesale accounts. This will allow me to work on creating new products when time allows (when baby sleeps, late at night, early morning, whenever!) and still get our products out into the world and available to all of you lovely friends and fans, without having to spend an entire day or weekend at a craft show if I'm maybe not up for it.
This all may change as time goes along, but that is the plan for now. It's all about taking life as it comes and going with the flow!
While this new phase of my life is brand new, and a little (okay, a LOT) intimidating, I am so SO excited for the adventures ahead and to see what it has in store. ❤